Social capital of not-for-profit (NFP) directors in Australia

Abstract

This research takes place in the Australian disability services field and follows two large disability service organisations in Australia. This research focuses on why members of a group of not-for-profit (NFP) directors undertake onerous duties on disability service boards without remuneration. A non-executive director's commitment to these roles is explored by researching their personal reasons for their ongoing engagement in this social space. Two significant director-interlocked networks operate during this research. One of these organisations on which the directors serve has links to a group of formerly 'crippled children' Rotary organisations. A group strategic alliance (Ability First Australia, AFA) permits resource sharing amongst a significant number of organisations. The involvement of a second significant director network, the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), facilitates the development of NFP strategic cognition for these and other directors. The thesis findings show that complex stakeholder considerations provide a substantial opportunity for these directors to develop strategic cognition, as defined in the literature by Narayanan, Zane and Kemmerer (2011). The experience allows them to transpose commercial governance principles and strategic practices, applied selectively to complex NFP organisations. Added to this opportunity, AICD training by the AICD in NFP governance and strategic cognition allows this group to control entry to directorships of these boards. The view that NFP organisations require directors with strategic cognition skills is examined in this thesis with the social structuring linked to Bourdieu's analysis of fields, symbolic capital and habitus (Bourdieu 1977a). This group of social elites utilises social and cultural capital (Bourdieu 2000) in the NFP field at the exclusion of the involvement of stakeholders in the strategic decision-making processes. The barrier for stakeholders of Australian Disability Service organisations, therefore, becomes the ability to develop this type of social capital to a sufficient level to gain access to the boards of these organisations. This study of non-executive directors on Australian disability service NFP boards reveals a group of social elites who often utilise their skills, education, and networks to enact symbolic power, represented by strategic cognition in the disability services field in Australia.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	George Lafferty (Supervisor), Gary Buttriss (Supervisor) & Alexandra McEwan (Supervisor)